Traipsing Thailand with Duncan Griffiths – Part III

This little…ball of animal joy….ran in and snatched my specks which – all things considered – were and are pretty darn banana colored. Jane, my lovely companion and long suffering girlfriend, stepped in by jumping on the back of a motorbike and returning with corn to distract the little monkey.

Jane I will owe you one forever.

Photo courtesy of Duncan Griffiths.

I still remember her riding in, tossing the yellow corn and yelling “Go-Go!” for me to run in and grab my glasses from the distracted primate.

Photo courtesy of Duncan Griffiths.

although not all there anymore as you can see – I call them floating glasses…the new balance made my right eye water consistently. Little monkey taught me a valuable lesson about leaving specialized lenses sitting on a rock like it was a writing desk.

I learned to appreciate my situation and how it can change at Khao Ngu on the edge of a cliff, and the teacher was master monkey. I’ve got to hand it to Jane too. And all she told me after is that all she wants is to put her head on my shoulder on the bus – and I appreciate that as well.

After that Jane got us a ride with a Thai carpenter, his girlfriend and their friends at least that’s how I interpreted them: fun loving people throwing the ever present corn out of the back of the pickup loaded with levels and other equipment for the rejoicing monkeys. They drove us to Wat Khao Chong Phran to see the bats emerge in their millions.

…After a well deserved lunch of peanut and chili fish, Tom Yung soup, fried rice and gulps of water followed long bottles of iced lager. We hung around that restaurant all afternoon watching parts of Beasts of No Nation and Catch me if you can while I enlarged the tab with big bottles of Leo beer. It was cool and peaceful in the shaded restaurant. If you ever go to see the bats at Chong Phran be sure to take advantage of the chili and peanut fish prepared across the road – you will not be disappointed.

Photo courtesy of Duncan Griffiths.

By 6:30 it was time for the bats.

After the bat cave we payed for a couple of rides back to Ratchaburri and then on to Samut Songkhram – In hindsight the best thing might have been to hire a car – as there are no taxi services to speak of and we were lucky we could find locals willing to take some baht to get us home.

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